A new approach for detection of host identity in IPv6 networks

For security, management and accounting, network administrators benefit from knowledge of IP and MAC address bindings. In IPv6, learning these bindings is not as straightforward as it is in IPv4. This paper presents a new approach to track IPv6 address assignments in LANs. The method is based on a study of implementation of IPv6 (mainly neighbor discovery) in current operating systems. The detection is passive for end devices and does not require any software or hardware modifications. In contrast with current methods, our approach does not poll routers in the network and works also in networks where IPv6 multicast is not broadcasted (active Multicast Listener Discovery snooping - MLD snooping). Moreover, our approach detects that an address is no longer used. The approach was successfully tested in a campus network.